Device That Would Be Useful on Dune

[BillTre]

Researchers from Berkeley and MIT have made a clever solar powered device that can extract water from low humidity desert air.

Good for arid places, like Dune!

 

[Orodruin]

If we are anyway talking fictional planets I want to point out that Luke Skywalker spent his childhood as a moisture farmer on Tatooine.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

If we are anyway talking fictional planets I want to point out that Luke Skywalker spent his childhood as a moisture farmer on Tatooine.

And later marketed the "Aunt Varoo Weight Loss Program" on late night TV.

 

[russ_watters]

Researchers from Berkeley and MIT have made a clever solar powered device that can extract water from low humidity desert air.

Good for arid places, like Dune!

The marketing spin annoys me here. They put the words "solar powered" on it as a way to solve the high energy use problem by pretending it doesn't exist and then use an extremely inefficient thermoelectric cooler as the condenser.

The principle of concentrating the moisture by absorbing it at night and releasing it during the day is sound, but any Boy Scout can do it with a tarp and a shovel. In both cases, it'll keep you alive in an emergency, but the lack of continuous output makes it infeasible for widescale use.

 

[StatGuy2000]

The marketing spin annoys me here. They put the words "solar powered" on it as a way to solve the high energy use problem by pretending it doesn't exist and then use an extremely inefficient thermoelectric cooler as the condenser.

The principle of concentrating the moisture by absorbing it at night and releasing it during the day is sound, but any Boy Scout can do it with a tarp and a shovel. In both cases, it'll keep you alive in an emergency, but the lack of continuous output makes it infeasible for widescale use.

A few questions for you as an aside to this article. As a mechanical engineer (and hence someone who has thought about the technology behind solar power, I presume):

1. How familiar are you with the latest technological developments with respect to solar power?

2. What do you see is the primary technical challenges with solar power?

3. In your opinion, what do you think are the prospects of expanding the use of solar power at a more industrial scale?